This invention relates to a connector to be mounted to a board and a ground structure of the connector.
A connector of the type is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2002-33162. The connector is adapted to be mounted to a board, such as a circuit board having a number of through holes. The connector comprises a pair of insulating housings disposed on opposite surfaces of the board and a plurality of conductive contacts inserted through the through holes and held by the housings. Each of the contacts has opposite ends protruding from the housings and serving as contacting portions. Each of the housings holds a conductive ground adjacent to the contacting portions of the contacts. The ground is expected to exhibit an electromagnetic shielding effect.
Each of the grounds has a plurality of terminal portions protruding from the housing towards the board and inserted into the through holes. The terminal portions of these ground plates are inserted from opposite sides of the board into respective common through holes and brought into contact with each other to achieve electrical connection therebetween.
However, in such a structure in which the terminal portions of the ground plates are contacted with each other within each single through hole, the board is inevitably increased in thickness. This is because, if the board is reduced in thickness, the through hole is short in length or depth so that it is difficult to bring the terminal portions into contact with each other within the through hole. Therefore, the board is increased in thickness and a whole of the connector including the board is increased in size.